Construction of a 10,000-head cattle operation in northeast Iowa should be stopped until the company building it can better protect a nearby cold-water trout creek, the Iowa Environmental Council says.

The statewide group asked the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to "stop all construction until adequate protections ... are put in place and followup investigations are done to ensure those protections are effective."

Iowa DNR cited Walz Energy, the company building the cattle feed lot, Tuesday for failing to have adequate stormwater protections in place.

The company plans to capture methane from the manure, along with added food waste, to generate natural gas that can be used to power cars and trucks.

DNR inspectors visited the site near Monona on Oct. 11 and determined that sediment had washed into the Bloody Run Creek from the Walz Energy project.

It ordered Walz Energy to repair the containment basin to prevent further discharges.

Jon Haman, Walz Energy's chief operating officer, said the company fixed the sediment controls within a couple hours of being notified of the accidental discharge.

A stormwater construction permit is required before any “earth-moving activities” to ensure a developer can prevent sediment and other pollutants from being washed off-site into downstream water bodies.

“Bloody Run will continue to be degraded with each rainfall as long as construction is allowed to continue without an effective pollution prevention plan," said Susan Heathcote, water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council, in a statement.

Iowa DNR will hold a public hearing on the stormwater construction permit from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 29 in the Clayton County Office Building, 600 Gunder Road in Elkader.